


Hanging on a Thread

by TheDarkFlygon



Series: 46 Survivors (Sugarvine) AU [3]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: 46 Survivors AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everybody (or so) Lives, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I have some injury descriptions but not enough to fit the graphic archive alert, Injury, Light Angst, Light Hinanami tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-29 22:53:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11450748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkFlygon/pseuds/TheDarkFlygon
Summary: There's blood oozing from everywhere or so on his body, and he's pretty sure he's going to die here against some cult worshipping that Enoshima despair bitch.But as always, when you're part of the 14th Division, you never get the occasion to die. Someone will always take your hand and patch you up before you can say "ciao" to the world.As the boss of this division, Hajime knows it better than anyone else.





	Hanging on a Thread

**Author's Note:**

> Before I get too many questions about this... Please read the Series info about the 46 Survivors/Sugarvine AU, that I'll add ASAP. If you wanna know the gist of it, everybody but Junko and Mukuro is alive, and V3 cast was Class 79 of Hope's Peak, who helped Class 78 and not-remnants-of-despair Class 77 to flee. Also Izuru Kamakura ain't a thing. Why would he be a thing, in an universe where Hajime became the Ultimate Counsellor?  
> More info later, really.
> 
> Also... Chiaki is a complicated mess. She's basically a DR3 and DR2 mix because she's supposed to be DR3 Chiaki, who somehow survived her execution to be ported into an earlier version of the NWP (called Other World Program) by Kazuichi, Chihiro and Miu. So yeah, she's a really advanced robot with a human soul at this point.

_“Let him bleed! Let him bleed! Bleed him out!”  
_

Red oozed from his body, from his shoulder, from his stomach, from his temple. He ached from everywhere, even from where he had been untouched by the psychos. He was barely standing anymore, uniform damaged to the point of revealing entire zones of bloodied skin, tie around the wound he had on uninjured right arm clutching the deep wound on his left shoulder. All that could exit his mouth, despite being at the head of this intervention, was blood.

 

_“Give blood to our Goddess of Despair!”_

His senses were getting blurry, ears buzzing and invaded by cotton. He was staggering, desperately trying to keep himself hidden from these Despair Cult freaks by trying to control his ragged breathing. He was supposed to stop them with the help of some Future Foundation soldiers. Now, he was just hiding behind a wall while they were chanting some nonsense he could barely hear anymore.

 

_“Hail Junko! Hail Destruction!”_

He tried to warn the troop he was commanding, but all he could do, was cough up blood and blood and blood. His vision was swimming, darkness lurking in the edges, as his horribly noisy breathing was starting to slow down. He was going to die in this hellhole.

 

_“…ko…! Ha…. D… air…!”_

His consciousness was fading in and out. He couldn’t move any upper limb anymore, not even press his uninjured arm over the slash on his stomach. Only his legs were responding, only for him to see a Monokuma-headed asshole facing him. He was just… Dying…

 

_“Ggh…!”_

He grunted as a burning pain lodged itself in his chest. His legs gave in upon impact, causing him to hit the ground tainted in red puddles. The smell of gunpowder mixed with blood… He had… Been… Shot…

 

* * *

 

 

_“…ta…?”_

He could hear a faint, soft-spoken voice. That ceiling, those lights… It was the hospital section of their division. Of _his_ division. The one he was _supposed_ to be the “boss” of. He was more of a manager, really, but he still had responsibilities. Responsibilities he had failed to fill.

 

“Hinata? You’re with us?”

He finally opened his eyes, only to look into Makoto Naegi’s own eyes as the latter looked at him, sitting next to him. Usually, when he would get injured, only Tsumiki and Nanami would be there when he would wake up, and maybe some miscellaneous medical staff. The fact that his right-hand was there only meant his injuries were far more serious this time around...

 

“He’s regained consciousness!”

Naegi’s relieved voice caught the attention of Nanami, who rushed next to the right-hand man. Both of their faces are filled with both worry and relief. Naegi even bore a small smile on his face, but knowing the happy-go-lucky character he usually was, he was clearly anxious.

 

“Hinata…”

Nanami’s voice could probably only whisper. She seemed really shaken, probably out of terror. She was screaming when his chest got wounded the first time they were on the field together. Her robotics were so advanced than her own face could express that worry… And he felt awful because of that. Worrying Nanami was something he had sworn not to do again. Mission failure.

“How are you feeling, Hinata…?”

She was insisting on how she pronounced his last name, focusing her speech pattern on it. Maybe it was how she reminded herself that he wasn’t in the grave yet. Her fingers were holding his right hand, just as he noticed that his left wrist had an IV inserted into it.

 

“I feel… Broken, I guess…?”

“Broken”, as if he was a doll who had been opened inside out to get its gears back in place. Everything felt like log, he could barely feel anything from the waist down. He knew he hadn’t lost his legs, but he still wondered how the hell that was possible.

 

“Huh… How am I… Still alive…?”

His voice was groggy and he hated it. But he was truly wondering how he was still alive. He had been shot in the chest. If his heart wasn’t damaged, then his lungs had to be. Yet he was still breathing somewhat fine, heavily but correctly. He finally found the strength to look at what was being injected in his veins: blood.

 

“Naegi gave you some of his blood because we didn’t have enough of it anymore… And you had already received the limit dose of artificial plasma…”

He looked at his right-hand man, but he lacked the skin paleness he usually had after giving his blood to those who needed it. Maybe he was indeed getting more used to it despite his light frame. Normally, he would do an effort, stand up and bow to dear Naegi for giving his own blood, but he felt weak and about to fall apart.

 

“Hinata, you scared us so much! You were seriously injured, it’s a miracle you’re still with us!”

Naegi’s words were a bit clumsy, but he could tell that the little man was trying his best to keep his feelings in check. He had always been a little emotional, losing his captain would probably leave devastated. 

 

“Seriously injured, right…? As in…?”

He needed to know why his crew seemed so worried. Even if it was only Naegi and Nanami at his side (Tsumiki not being there meant that she was resting), he knew that the former wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important. He wondered how long he had been out of the loop. Kirigiri was probably in command for the moment, just like during the time he had to recover from the time where he got his chest slashed to protect Nanami.

 

“Huh… A bullet to the shoulder… No real damage… A slash to the stomach… A hit to the head, probably from a bat… And another bullet to the chest, right next to the heart… One sectioned vein, a major artery bruised, and a slight lung perforation…”

Nanami’s calm voice made it all the much creepier. He didn’t remember getting the hit to the head, he just remembered it drippling with red all over his left eye. Naegi was visibly wincing at every new injury that got mentioned.

 

“Huh, Chiaki…? How long have… I been out cold…? Has Kirigiri… Taken over…?”

The division. Enough about him. He was only a small part of it, and he needed to know for how long he had been unable to do his job. He may had only been a manager of sorts; he still deeply cared for every single member of it, and he had to know how they had been holding out. A few hours could represent a lot of events for the Fourteenth Division.

 

“To answer your questions, Hinata… Kyoko has taken over, yeah… And…”

Naegi seemed incredibly hesitant, looking away. Even Ch-Nanami didn’t seem that confident in herself, eyes fluttering around, trying not to cross his own.

 

_“…You’ve been out for two weeks, Hinata…”_

 

“Ex… Excuse me…?!”

He almost choked on his own voice. There was no way that he had been out for two weeks. It was possible to stay out cold for two days in that place, and he learnt that on the day they had to put Kirigiri herself in one of those “soft hypothermia” machines after she had suffered what would be otherwise fatal injuries during an investigation.

There was _no way_ he had stayed on one of those for two weeks.

 

“Huh, yeah… You were so injured that we had to put you in soft hypothermia… Your heart even stopped at one point _…”_

That was… Unbelievable. Two weeks, out of commission? It meant he had been missing for fourteen days! Anything could had happened, and he started to panic, breathing getting faster. He really had barely escape death’s claws.

 

“Did… Something happen…?”

His voice was trembling. He felt so afraid for his comrades, for his friends. He only knew that Naegi and Nanami were all right, Kirigiri probably was too, but he couldn’t not worry for all the others. For the forty others.

 

“Hinata, please, stay calm! Nothing bad happened while you were unconscious, don’t worry about us!”

Naegi was trying his hardest to reassure him, but considering how calm Nanami looked, he bought into the smaller man’s words. He wasn’t in any shape to panic anyway, he was already broken as he was. He wondered if he didn’t have any fractured limb either… He probably did, considering the numb pain in his left shoulder.

 

“Naegi is right… Panicking now wouldn’t do anything anyway… Your leave extends for at least a good month…”

Right when he was about to think that he had to go back to work as soon as possible, Nanami shattered his hope with a single sentence. Even if he had seen it coming –considering how bad he was injured- it still somewhat hurt to hear. Maybe a part of him had hoped it wasn’t that serious.

 

“So you lay down and rest, okay? I’m sure all the others will understand.”

Nanami’s calm words made him feel a bit easier. There was no need to rush it anyway, he would only make his condition worse. Lying down and watching never was much of his thing, he preferred working on things to fix them, and feeling powerless was something he hated, but he resolved himself to let Kirigiri in command for a bit longer and his right-hand man to act as her conscience.

 

* * *

 

 

“I… Look decent, right?”

He was wearing his uniform for the first time in what felt like forever. He hadn’t seen much of the division: a bit shameful of getting completely wrecked against that Despair Cult, he had mainly spent time in his own apartment, not to include that his moves were limited by a cast on his left shoulder. He would only see his closest ones, and maybe sometimes receive visits from Akamatsu to check up on the whole “communication with other divisions” shtick.

 

“You look great, Hajime.”

Chiaki, standing next to him, looked at his reflexion in the mirror as she softly smiled. He had finally dared to ask her if she wanted the both of them to go on a first-name basis, as he felt like she was his second-in-command woman just like Naegi was his right-hand man. It only felt natural. She went to him to do his tie.

 

“I’m a bit nervous, to be honest with you… It’s been a while since everybody saw me at work.”

Kirigiri would check up on him once a day, giving him news and asking for his opinion on decisions and the latest Future Foundation facts. He was thankful that she had been there in his stead during his recovery, because if he had to admit himself something, it was that he felt like garbage during said recovery. God, that feeling of powerlessness and weakness.

 

“I’m sure everyone will be glad to see you… They missed you, you know…”

Her soft smile would calm him down quicker than anything else. Faintly smiling too, he reviewed himself for the last time in the mirror, paying attention as to how his suit fell on his shoulder and torso. His whole left arm was still paralyzed because of the damage his shoulder had taken, but everything else was fine.

 

_“Let’s go, Chiaki.”_

 

* * *

 

 

“Boss!!” “Hinata!!”

It was as if the whole division sat up from their seats as soon as he entered the room. Smiles and cheers invaded the office as various people asked how he was doing, from all three former classes. He couldn’t help but get moved by their words. Such overwhelming support…

_“Hinata, I’m glad to see that you’ve recovered enough to join us again.”_

_“I’m so happy that you’re back, Hinata!”_

Kyoko Kirigiri’s calm voice greeted him as the detective walked up to her hierarchical superior. She had a slight smile on her face, Naegi following her sporting an ear-to-ear grin. Speaking of grinning, he was probably doing so himself, the happiness perhaps overwhelming him.

 

“Huh… I’m glad to see you all again too…! It’s been a while, isn’t it?”

His response was kind of stuttering and lame compared to all the love he was getting showered in. He didn’t know he was flattered or just embarrassed at this point, but he had to show some professionalism as he joined back his desk.

 

“Are you gonna be okay with your arm?”

“You’re sure your wounds are alright?”

He was getting asked this by a few different people. Each time around, he could reply yes without lying to them or himself: he hadn’t forced himself into recovery for nothing. Of course, typing would be much harder with an arm still unusable for a month, but he knew he could count on Chiaki and Naegi to help him doing so.

 

“Dude, we missed you so much!”

“Same goes for me, really…”

After a near-death experience, life only tasted better. That was the future he was looking for: a trustworthy and efficient division with whom he could go through hope and despair, no matter how much of his own blood he would take him.

**Author's Note:**

> For some other stuff, if you've stayed this far:  
> -soft hypothermia and shit will probably be explained more in a story where I actually get to describe those. They're elements taken almost straight out of Yoko Tsuno (which is like, best Belgian SF comic ever read it)  
> -Curious about the Chiaki mess? An OS will arrive for this.  
> -I'm sorry, Hajime, but you seem to be my newest victim. 
> 
> (yeah the ending was kinda rushed)


End file.
